Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-09-10
MARY JAMES TRAVELS.
She Write. from Chap"unix-Fnir,S Sweet
Chamounix.

Sne w rites from Z Shabouhih-Eh mr., S"ee
Chamounix.
Especial Correspondence
CHAMoUNIX, Savoy, Aug ID believe
have confessed once or twice, during ou
summer rambles, TO ignorance Of certai
things, which are apparently SO simpl
that every one should know them. Well
+ | am come for confession again. The da
we came 10 Chamouuix, l wrote Swis
postal card full of wise and witty observa
tons on the trip from the last station, an,
took it to the hotel letter box to mail Jus
as was going 20 drop it in, the hotel porte
stopped me.
WHATS that fort" said l, sharply
"'TiSn't the right kind of a post card
ma'am," said he, politely.
It's two cents WORTH" said /, land that
the rate to America
YES, but it Is Swiss card, and ChamouniI
is in France, and not Switzerland"
How stupid Of me, said l. with true fash
ionshle womanly grace, ito get my Frenct
cards mixed with my Swiss ones and moi
notice it. III just have to write another fol
my carelessnesS, and with a smiling Thanh
you, | left him and hied me to my room {,
stop Dickey from doing what had done, and
waste another card | don't know whether
tine porter believed the card story or not. be
cause 81 many people had done what | had
that he had put up sign on the box reading
France, but | know didn't believe 1t, and
even now can't think of ~ChamounIN, swee,
Chamounlx," as anything else but part OF
Switzerland.
Well, We have crossed the Alps, I may
say We have crossed them twice-once vis
the Simplon pass and again via the Tete
Noir-and crossing the Alps is no small un
dertaklns, when You come To consider that
1t has To- be done by diligence or char a hanc
or mule a-back. or some other method OF the
Soschim period, and it is all up hill and
Town hill. But / know what a real mountain
is now, and am satisfied For wears have
been anxious to see a mountain which in
some degree approached my ideal. but
! never >ould find one. They all lacked the
stupendous grandeur l sought, and with each
recurring mountain brought to view came
added disappointment The morning we
started over the Simplon told Dickey sup
posed We would have the usual experience,
but when the diligence ran along slowly up
the narrow defile of the Condo gorge and
the mountains began 10 rise almost perpen-
dicular above Us, / felt that possibly what
sought might b. found here. | waited and
watched, and at one turn in the road my
dream came true. Far, far above me, until
it gave me the toothache in the back Of my
Geek TO look TO the summit, rose q peak,
Loo, 900 feet up it looked like, and hanging
almost over me The trees dwindled away
into little lunches of evergreen and finally
disappeared; but the peak ran on upward to
bare and rocky point-a very Alpine
l. 81. L. -. Il Z.
we'll said by the guide book that the Condo
gorge is the srandest in the Alps, and if in
the world there lie other scenery like it
don't care to see it, for l know when
I've got enough. In the afternoon We
had reached an altitude of 6,6O0 feet :;
the air was bleak and chill, and
the snow, in banks, lay along the roadside.
bu; over beyond where the sun could reach
the earth, the Alpine rose painted the rocks
a rich deep red. and the harebell nodded its
pretty blue head 10 the futtering gold of the
primrose.
Up the road TO the summit of the pass We
saw telegraph poles of stone, the first had
ever seen. The driver or conductor couldn't
speak English, and could not ask him why
they Used such material, but for tho benefit
Of Others who may come over the Sinplon, |
will venture the opinion that they are Of
stone, 50 they won't freeze off i'll winter
Somebody, a newspaper man, think it was,
told NE it got 50 col! at the Hospice that the
smoke from the chimneys froze every night
and choked up the fiue, and that the monks
dragged it out and chopped itup for fuel
Dlckey believed this yarn, but didn't, and
merely repeat IL to show you that a man Is
as unreliable IN other walks Of life Us in max
ing love TO tine girls.
Switzerland Is "a charming country and at
every hotel We have stopped at we have had
honey for breakfast. The Switzer may for
get grace al breakfast, but he does not for
get honey, and Swiss honey is as sweet and
pure "a the air it grows In.
l believe in one of my previous letters I
called attention to the fact that il was the
exception to find house in southern France
or Italy which had any caves TO speak Of,
and at the same time l think / offered
chrome to any subscriber who would tell me
why it WAS So Nobody has answered
the question up TO date and III take
the chrome myself. 1 have discovered
the why. in Switzerland. namely, to wit:
These Swiss houses are built with such ex-
cesslvely extensive caves that they exhaust
the entire continental supply and all the other
houses have to go without. OF course many
persons will doubt this statement, but they
won't unless they have never seen the Swiss
houses and until they do see them they are
not competent TO sit in Judgment. In some
cases they are 50 wide that a set of hinges
might be put in and the cave let down
like all old fashioned table leaf. 10 serve as al
extra thickness of wall i'll cold weather
These are the first frame houses We have
seen, too. excepting those temporarily erected
along the coast between Marseilles and Genoa
since the eaIthquake and We feel just a little
as If We had struck a mountain region in our
own country.
At this point Dickey suggested that stop
writing and go with fer to make a snow man
on the glacier adjoining our backyard, and 1
think will. She remarks en- PEASANT that .
snow man III summer is an excellent variety
Of sweetheart. because he Is in such melting
mood MARY JANE-
An Age Of Typewriters.
believe the time viii come when the
local of a paper will all he done on the
-rrsn 'ha